Blog

These days, one of the most powerful content marketing tools you can use is video. It's an even better tool if you can showcase several of them on your YouTube page. Once you start showcasing your content on your channel, you'll want to create custom thumbnails to make each one stand out. You can also use them to create some uniformity and give your channel some eye-pleasing organization.

Anytime you upload a video to YouTube, it will create a set of stills to serve as your thumbnail. This is the image people see before clicking on the content. Once you've verified your account, you'll see a Custom Thumbnail option in the upload/edit page.

There are several free graphic design programs out there, but I like to create YouTube Custom Thumbnails on Canva. They give you some really nice templates that allow you to quickly produce an engaging image. You can choose one and easily swap out images or adjust the text. You can also choose a blank format and build one from scratch.

In the first episode of the Content Call Podcast, Chris Brogan talked about how people read an average of 19 minutes of text per day (blogs, text messages, news, etc), but hours and hours of videos are viewed/downloaded each day. This was a key reason he decided to start vlogging and including video in his content marketing efforts.

Another important point was to not limit your content to "talking head" video. It was good to hear him say this because I too have suggested this to businesses. I think you need to do some of it in order to humanize your brand, let people get to know you and offer the audience good value (by answering customer questions, etc). However, I also think you need to mix it up a little bit and maybe add some creativity into your video content. I understand that can sometimes be easier said than done depending on the business. So, here are some examples to help get you inspired.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, RE-ELECT HIM (For all of us)I've seen my share of cringe worthy political campaign ads. They have a very predictable formula that generally features inspirational music, predictable visuals and a candidate speaking to the audience with typical politician talk. For many candidates, even running for smaller offices, that seems to be the default. Then a video goes viral for the right reasons because someone decided to get a little more creative...like in the case of Gerald Daugherty.

His campaign ad featured several common themes, like scenes with the family and clips of the candidate talking about issues. It's just presented in a different context. If your first video concept seems a bit "generic", take a little time and figure out a way to put a creative spin on it. Take additional steps to make it more watchable. After all, campaign ads can be eye-rollers that are easily tuned out. Not this one.​ ​

WANT A SLEEPY CAT? WE GOT 'EM!Sometimes worries about production quality can be a deterrent on whether or not an organization chooses to produce a variety of videos. I'm not saying it's not something to concern yourself with; I would just say watch this video.

The production quality isn't stellar. However, we can understand what is said, and he really sells the fun idea they have for this animal shelter. Not only is it great to see this wasn't a generic idea, but I will take this ANY given day of the week over those hardcore depressing animal commercials with the Sarah McGlachlan music.

When it's all said and done, what do you come away with? They have animals, they look like they take care of them and they seem to be fun people. Those are some good takeaways, right?

WATCH ME TALK ABOUT RAZORSOne of the more successful viral video campaigns in recent memory came from Dollar Shave Club. When creating their video, they didn't just have a guy stand in front of the camera and pitch their product. They took that idea and blew it out of the box.

Notice how they didn't need fancy graphics, special effects or even beautiful sets (they shot it all at a warehouse). It wasn't even a full blown explanation about the blade quality or the business model. They kept it bare bones and entertained you along the way.

At the end of the video, you know all about them, and you may be even intrigued. This video went uber viral in just 72 hours. After the fist 48 hours, the ad helped the company gain 12,000 new subscribers.

Michael Dubin, the guy you see on camera, knew that people remember things presented in the form of music. In his view, COMEDY is a form of music. Granted, they had a budget ($4,500 to be exact), but that isn't the point here. The point is the creative approach used to do one thing - sell a razor subscription. Even if some people didn't sign up for the product, odds are they still shared the video with others.

IT'S KINDA GROSS, HOWEVER...I remember one of my first jobs was writing audio recorded phone book advertising for a variety of companies. One of my clients was a sewage company, and at the time, they figured the only way to discuss their service was carefully and without too much detail. Nowadays, video can turn those challenges into content you can't stop watching (even if you're a little grossed out).

Storytelling offers a good outlet for these types of videos because you have full creative control on how you are going to present the information. The Sure Lock video was supposedly based on a true story.

Meanwhile, the First Moon Party video developed a fictional story to convey information about an uncomfortable topic.

IF YOU COULD JUST SPEAK, THAT WOULD BE GREATI used to work for a training company, and my boss was speaking at a conference called Innotech. The name of the conference reminded me of the fictional company featured in the movie Office Space (and it was a technology conference).

So, I decided to produce a couple of parody videos to promote his speech. I wrote, directed and edited these videos and shared them online. No budget - just a video camera and a self-constructed boom mic (mono pod that's attached to a mic).

The people at the conference loved the idea so much, that they shared it on their social networks. If you'd like to see "Part 2" of the video, you can watch it HERE.

If you don't always have the time to shoot these types of videos, services like Animoto, Moovly and GoAnimate can help you focus on music, text and animation.

So, you have plenty of options to make some engaging videos that can drive traffic to your business. You can really optimize your potential by finding a variety of ways to be creative and effectively engage your target audience.

Let's connect!

I'm known for my people skills, conceptual creativity, work ethic and ability to write/produce content for any client or project. I have a natural passion for creating content, helping others and building relationships. There are several different ways we can connect. Let's put our content powers together and win the day!